


She-Ra, Catra, and the Princesses of Power

by Lazuli3002



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: F/F, Friends to Lovers, Multi, tagging is hard
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:41:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28199298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lazuli3002/pseuds/Lazuli3002
Summary: What would've happened if Catra insisted on going with Adora to the Whispering Woods? How would the story have played out differently?I've always wondered how it would've been if Catra and Adora had stayed together during the whole show, so here is my take on that. :)
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Bow/Glimmer (She-Ra)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 57





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Catra and Adora meet Bow and Glimmer.

“Just, cover for me while I’m gone, okay?” Adora told her friend. Catra just couldn’t understand why she had to go back to the woods. Adora didn’t know how to explain. Catra’s tail twitched.

“No.” Adora startled at the conviction in her voice. Catra was staring at her intensely. “I’m not going to let you go alone. You’d probably get hurt or worse if I did. I mean, what kind of friend would I be if I let you go be stupid without me?” she smirked.

The two girls stared at each other for another minute before Adora sighed and relented, a soft smile growing on her face.

“Fine,” she drawled to make it known she wasn’t completely happy with being told ‘no’. Catra’s smirk turned into a more genuine grin and she lightly shoved Adora’s shoulder with her own. 

“Oh please, you didn’t wanna leave me that bad,” she teased. “You know I’m right, anyway.” Adora snorted and with that, the girls left the Fright Zone for the Whispering Woods.

\-----

After an hour or so of exploring the forest, Catra was starting to bug Adora. 

“Come onnnnn,” she said impatiently. “We haven’t found whatever mysterious thing you’re looking for, let’s just head back home and look again some other time. Shadow Weaver’s gonna murder us if we get caught, if we haven’t already been found missing.” she muttered the last sentence more to herself. Adora put her hand on Catra’s shoulder to comfort her for a second, before she noticed a strange sort of glow coming from behind a clump of foliage. She pointed to it with her free hand absently and walked closer in a haze.

Catra followed, her eyes widening at the light. The two emerged from the trees and bushes into a small clearing in the woods.

There was a glowing sword embedded in the ground. Adora approached it after staring intently at it for a second, then- 

“HORDE SOLDIERS! AGHHH!” Catra and Adora instinctively got into defensive positions and whipped around to see two people glaring at them and shouting. One was a short girl with pink and purple hair who… seemed to be glittering, and the other was a taller boy with a weird cut-off top and a bow and arrows. Adora looked at them then darted for the sword, and the two strangers rushed forward to intercept her. Catra launched herself at the boy and they grappled for a second before Catra had him pinned. He continued to struggle, while Catra looked up to find Adora having trouble landing a hit on her own opponent, who could apparently teleport. The princess- she had to be one, with those powers- appeared in front of Catra for a split second before disappearing again, but Adora had thrown herself at her and bowled into Catra, knocking her off of the boy with an oof. 

The boy kicked at them, shoving them even more off balance, and he and the princess tackled Adora and Catra. The two Horde soldiers struggled for another moment before exchanging a glance and going still. For a tense minute the boy and princess held them there before they both shot up off the girls, and the boy pulled out his bow and shot them with an arrow that erupted into a net, tangling the girls up on the ground. 

Adora managed to get out from under the net first and with a flailing arm, knocked the princess into the boy, who caught her easily- but Adora had made it to the sword. Catra watched as her friend touched it before the clearing exploded with light. Everyone exclaimed in shock.

When the light disappeared, Catra saw her friend sprawled on the ground, unconscious. She felt a wave of panic rush through her and fought harder against the net to get to Adora, when suddenly she felt the sharp crack of pain against her skull, and everything turned black. 

She was out. 

\-----

When Adora came too, she dazedly looked around, finding herself tied up tightly next to Catra. She groaned and nudged her friend through her bonds. Catra didn’t stir.

Adora blinked. Fear curdled in her gut. “Catra?” she said worriedly. Her friend still didn’t budge. “Catra!” Nothing. 

“Hey, can you please shut up?” Adora looked up at the voice. It was the princess. 

“What did you do to my friend?” Adora said sharply, ignoring what the princess had said. The princess blinked in what looked like surprise. Adora glared at her.

“She’ll be fine,” said a deeper voice. The boy walked up next to the princess. “I hit her in the head to knock her out just a little bit ago, she’ll wake up eventually. You were only out for a few minutes.” Adora relaxed a tiny bit at the boy’s words before tensing again as the princess lightly kicked her foot with her own to get Adora’s attention. 

“What are you doing in the Whispering Woods?” she interrogated. Adora grit her teeth and glared at her. The princess glared back. 

“... Alright, well this is gonna go nowhere,” said the boy. “I’m Bow, this is Glimmer, and we just wanna know why you’re trespassing in the woods.” Adora scoffed.

“Trespassing? We aren’t trespassing, we were just… exploring.” Adora could practically hear Catra snorting at her in her head. “I’m Adora, this is Catra. We didn’t mean any harm.” she said, trying for diplomacy. The princess- Glimmer- scoffed this time. 

“First of all, you were absolutely trespassing, since this is the Rebellion’s territory, and second of all, since when does the Horde not mean any harm?” Adora mentally reeled back at the amount of bitterness in Glimmer’s voice. She instantly went defensive.

“What does that mean? The Horde never means to hurt anyone,” she seethed. How dare she? “They took me in when I was a baby and raised me, gave me a home, they wouldn’t hurt anyone who didn’t deserve it.” The princess snarled and grabbed Adora by the collar of her jacket, hauling her up with surprising strength. 

“Well I’m glad they were so good to you, but try telling that to all the innocent casualties of their selfish, stupid war!” Glimmer let go of Adora’s jacket and she fell to the ground. “Come on Bow, let’s just go. We need to get them to Brightmoon, soon.” the princess said with an air of finality. The boy, Bow, was sweating and looked awkward at her outburst, but nodded and picked up Catra, throwing the still unconscious girl over his shoulder. With little choice, Adora got up to follow.

Catra was right, she thought to herself in annoyance. Leaving home was a shitty idea.

\-----

As they walked together, Bow walked next to Adora, and was thankfully careful with Catra. Adora noticed how he unconsciously moved around any obstacles that would hit Catra and shifted Adora out of the way of possible tripping hazards, and was confused as to why he was being so courteous. Meanwhile, his very sparkly companion was teleporting to-and-fro with increasing frustration.

“Why do you follow her? You know she’s a princess.” she said to the boy as he helped her over a log. “She’s dangerous. The Horde always says that princesses are unstable and can’t control their powers.” Bow looked at her like she was the crazy one. 

“Does she look like she can’t control her powers?” he asked. Adora turned to see Glimmer teleporting and walking with easy precision, and wondered what else the Horde could’ve been wrong about. She didn’t say anything.

After a few more minutes of walking silently next to Bow, Adora heard screaming. Suddenly Glimmer was running towards them, and following close behind was an angry-looking giant bug-monster. Bow yelped and shoved Adora out of the way as it barreled towards them. She tumbled to the forest floor, but quickly recovered, turning around quickly to see Glimmer, Bow, and Catra cornered against a large tree, the monster looming over them. Without thinking, she ran towards it with a burst of speed and dropped to the ground into a slide, maneuvering under the bug-creature and tucked into a roll before popping up in front of her captors and friend. Her bonds had gotten torn when Bow pushed her, so with her freed hands she yanked the sword off of Glimmer’s back.

There was another flash of light, and suddenly Adora felt stronger, taller, more powerful. The bug was staring at her and she gently pushed it a few feet away from her and the others. The bug seemed to calm down, and it laid down easily. 

Adora looked down at the sword with a calm smile before catching her reflection and she froze. She dropped the sword and in a flash she was back to normal. Glimmer snapped out of her shock first and lunged for the sword. 

“What was that? What did you just do?!” the princess yelled as she and Adora both grappled at the weapon.

“What did YOU do to ME?! I didn’t know being a princess was CONTAGIOUS!” Adora shouted back, slightly hysteric. 

“What do you MEAN what did WE do to YOU? We didn’t do anything!” Bow jumped forward and also grabbed the sword with one hand, holding Catra on his shoulder with the other.

“Okay, okay, everybody calm down!” he turned to Adora. “You wanna tell us how you did that?” 

“I don’t know what happened! One second I’m me, then I touch the sword and- WOOSH! I’m in a tiara!” Adora was ABSOLUTELY freaking out. She didn’t wanna be a princess, no matter how powerful she had felt! Glimmer finally wrestled the sword out of the other two’s grasps and backed up away from Adora. 

“Well you’re not doing it again!” she exclaimed loudly. Next to all of them, the bug shifted, then got up with a roar. 

Okay maybe Adora did wanna be a princess again. She leapt towards Glimmer to grab for the sword, but Glimmer evaded her. The bug charged at them and the three had no choice but to run, since Glimmer wouldn’t give her the damn sword. 

They all ran together from the creature, screaming. 

Then they fell off a cliff. Adora vaguely wondered how Catra was still not awake. 

After they all landed in front of what the others told her were ancient ‘First Ones’ ruins, Adora approached the obvious door. She… understood what the ruins said. 

“Eternia,” she murmured to herself in wonder. The door glowed and opened. 

“You can read that?” Bow asked incredulously. Adora shrugged. “You can’t?” From up above them on the cliff, the bug roared. It started making its way down to them and Adora, panicked, grabbed Catra from Bow and ran into the ruins. She heard the others follow, then the door shut behind them and the four were in darkness. 

Glimmer put up a hand and from it a pink, glittery light lit up the room. Adora had to admit it was kind of cool. Bow didn’t seem to agree.

“Glimmer, are you sure you should be doing that? We’re still a ways from Brightmoon, you can’t charge your powers anytime soon.” Adora let out a small huff of amusement. 

“You have to charge your powers?” Glimmer sent her a withering look, then turned to Bow.

“Can we not discuss this in front of the Horde soldier?” she said. Bow had the decency to look a little guilty. But only a little. Adora felt Catra shift in her arms. 

“She’s waking up!” she set her friend on the ground gently and after a second of hesitation tore Catra’s binds. Glimmer let out a sound of protest but was shushed by Bow. Catra groaned and groggily sat up, making eye contact with Adora.

“Adora?” she said dazedly. “Wha’ happened?” Catra blinked herself more awake and looked around. She shot up when she saw Bow and Glimmer and dove at them, but Adora caught her mid-air.

“Catra, wait! It’s okay! We’ve… kind of come to a truce!” Catra whipped her head around to send an ‘are you crazy’ look at Adora, hitting her in the face with her hair in the process. “You what? Why? They attacked us!” Adora winced.

“Okay, if I put you down will you listen to what I say?” she pleaded. Catra looked down to where Adora was still holding her around the waist and gave a long-suffering sigh before going limp.

“Fine,” she said. Adora let go of her and Catra caught herself and brushed herself off before leveling Bow and Glimmer with a threatening glare. 

“Okay. Adora, what happened.” Adora exchanged a look with Bow and Glimmer, then sighed a disbelieving laugh. 

“Okay, so… get this-”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so I was watching the first few episodes of the show while I wrote to refresh my memory and there are more inconsistencies in the first chapter than I would've liked, but I didn't wanna go through and change it, so sorry about that but this chapter is much truer to what actually happened in the show! Enjoy!!

Catra stared at her unblinkingly. Adora tried not to sweat nervously as she felt Glimmer and Bow shift unconsciously behind her.

“... Okay, that’s it, you had to have hit your head way harder than I thought when you fell out of the skiff yesterday,” Catra said, glaring at her friend. “You turned into a giant glowing princess? What? Adora, you can’t be serious.”

Adora’s gaze flicked to Glimmer, who was holding the sword with the hand she wasn’t using as a light source. 

“I can show her if you give it to me, just for a second,” she tried to reason. Glimmer’s expression hardened and her hold tightened around the weapon. Adora sighed. 

“Whatever. Can we just get going and try to find a way out of here?” she said, trying to calm the tense atmosphere. It worked, thankfully. The four started walking together down the ruin’s hallway after a second. 

“Look at these carvings,” Glimmer said as they all walked. “I think this might be a First Ones ruin.”

“What’s a First One?” Adora asked curiously. 

“You’ve never heard of the First Ones?” Glimmer turned to look at her and rolled her eyes. Adora tried not to feel too offended.

“The First Ones are the original settlers of Etheria,” Bow began to explain. “They disappeared a thousand years ago, but they left behind a lot of old ruins and technology, like this place.”

“So, what happened to them?”

“No one knows, they just disappeared. The Horde didn’t tell you guys about them?”

“Seems like there’s a lot the Horde didn’t tell us,” Adora muttered, exchanging a glance with Catra, who shrugged.

“Ugh! How do we get out of here?!” Glimmer growled, annoyed when they came to a fork at the end of the hallway.

“It’ll take forever to find a way out at this rate,” Bow sighed. “Hey, wanna turn on some lights, Adora?” he whipped around to ask. 

“I don’t know how to do that,” she replied, a little self-consciously. 

“Maybe there’s a magic word! Oh, what’s the First Ones word for ‘light’?”

“I don’t know, I’m not magic,” Adora said irritably.

“Obviously,” Glimmer handed the sword to Bow and brought her hands together, strengthening the glow from them. “Everyone, stand back.” she breathed deeply and threw the ball of glittering light into the air above their heads, where it exploded into a larger sphere and lingered, glowing brightly enough to illuminate the whole room.

“Whoa…” Adora gazed at it in wonder. Even Catra looked the tiniest bit impressed, her previously crossed arms falling to rest at her sides.

Glimmer stumbled from the effort of using her powers and Bow hurried forward to catch her.

“Whoa, whoa are you okay?” he asked her, concerned. She brushed him off.

“I’m fine, Bow.” she paused and looked up at the wall that was previously too dark to see. The other three followed her line of sight. 

Etched into the wall was a picture of a giant woman, holding a sword like the one that had turned Adora into a princess.

“Whoa, hey, that’s you!” exclaimed Bow excitedly. Adora looked at him in confusion.

“What? That doesn’t look anything like me,” she replied. Next to her, Catra also shot Bow a look like he was crazy.

“No, I mean the other you, the scary one in the cape!” he told her, raising a fist to mime holding up the sword. Adora turned to peer back at the picture.

“That was… me?” 

Bow nudged her shoulder with his. 

“You can read that inscription, right? What’s it say?”

“It says… ‘She-Ra’.” when Adora spoke, the etching lit up and began to glow, spreading around the room.

“Oh I don’t trust this at all,” Catra said lowly.

A translucent figure popped up in front of them speaking unintelligibly, and they all jumped back, letting out noises of alarm.

“What is this thing?!” Adora whisper-yelled. 

“What is your query?” it asked, unfazed. 

“I think it’s some kind of ancient hologram,” said Bow as he approached it, going to poke it but pulling back before making contact.

“What is your query?” it repeated.

“Uhhh, hi. What is this place?” he replied. A beat passed. “How-do-we-get-out-of-here?” Bow tried again, annunciating with his hands cupped around his mouth. It flickered.

“What is your query?”

“Welp, she’s broken.”

“She’s old,” Glimmer walked forward. “I’m surprised any of this stuff works at all.” she said, sticking her hand through it. It turned red.

“Administrator not detected. Lockdown initiated.” The entire room went crimson and the doors all began to slam shut around them, one getting caught on a loose piece of rubble in the way and starting to crumble the ruin. 

“I didn’t do it!” Glimmer cried, backing up as Bow started forward.

“No no, no lockdown, no lockdown!” he waved his hands frantically. The four all looked around for a way out. “Adora, you’ve got to get it to stop!”

“What makes you think I can?!” she shouted back, panicked.

“Query recognized.”

“There’s gotta be a password or something!” Bow yelled.

“Uh, stop it! Uh, eternia, eternia!” Nothing happened. Adora’s eyes moved to the picture of the sword, then fixed her gaze on Glimmer. “Give me the sword!”

“What? No!”

“We need the scary lady in the cape! I don’t know how, but she’s the key to this place, so maybe she can get us out!”

Glimmer looked at the sword in her hands.

“You’re a Horde soldier!” she said after a moment. “I’m NOT giving you the sword!” 

“Oh for the love of-” Catra made to grab the weapon from Glimmer and the two wrestled with it. Adora tried to pry it away from both of them, while shouting:

“Eternia! Uh, cape! Uh, She-ra!” a piece of the ceiling began to fall, and Glimmer quickly surveyed the room, then- still holding the sword tightly, along with Catra and Adora- reached for Bow with one hand and pulled the four of them together.

“Hold on!”

“Glimmer, no!” Bow protested loudly. Then the room disappeared in a flash of glittering light and they were all falling.

Glimmer had teleported all four of them high in the sky above the forest, and had promptly passed out. They all shrieked as they fell towards the trees.

Bow tried to wake Glimmer by grabbing her arm and shaking her as they plummeted, to no avail. Thinking quickly, he grabbed his bow and an arrow, shooting below them where it erupted into a net, catching them all and breaking their fall.

When Glimmer came too, Bow, Catra and Adora were all standing over her. 

“Glimmer? Glimmer!” Bow said worriedly. Catra’s ear flicked in slight concern.

Glimmer exhaled. “Did it work?” 

“Yeah, it worked,” the boy replied, relieved. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine,” she said softly, then gasped when she tried to get up, clutching her stomach. “I think I used too much power getting us out of there.”

“I don’t know who could’ve predicted that,” Bow started, helping her stand, while Catra snorted in the background. “Oh, right, me.”

“Bow.”

“Like an hour ago.”

“Bow!”

“Sorry, I’m just glad you’re okay,” he said apologetically as Glimmer leaned down, picking up the sword. “No teleporting for a while, okay? You could really hurt yourself-”

“I’m fine!” Glimmer moved her hand to the back of her head and sliding it down her neck. “Let’s just get back to Brightmoon so I can recharge already.” her eyes shifted to Adora and Catra. “Why are YOU two still here?” 

“What?” asked Adora, confused.

“Bow and I are hardly a crack security team- you guys could’ve escaped at any time! Why didn’t you?” Catra and Adora exchanged a glance- Catra was wondering the same thing.

“I just- I wanna figure out what’s happening to me, and if we go back to the Fright Zone, then I’ll never know. I never knew where I came from, who my family was, Shadow Weaver said it didn’t matter who I was before, that-that I was nothing before Hordak took me in. There’s always been a part of me that I just never knew anything about, and all of this,” Adora gestured at the forest around them. “It feels familiar somehow. I don’t know how else to explain it.” Catra studied her, then sighed.

“I guess I’m curious about what’s outside of home, too,” she muttered to her friend, loudly enough for the other two to hear her as well. Glimmer looked down at Adora’s Force Captain badge, eyes narrowing. Bow placed his hands on her shoulders.

“Glimmer’s mom knows more about the First Ones’s tech than anyone. She’ll know what’s going on with you and the sword, for sure! So if you want your questions answered, stick with us?” he extended a hand to Adora. She went to reach for it, a small smile forming on her face, when Glimmer interrupted.

“Let’s go,” she said, a little darkly, brushing past them. “There should be a village a few miles from here. They’ll be able to give us a ride back to Brightmoon. We’ve wasted too much time already.” The others followed after a second without a word.

\-----

They arrived at a buzzing, colorful town where people were dancing and talking, looking like they were having a lot of fun. Adora peeked at them from behind a small building before Glimmer pulled her back.

“Okay, the jacket comes off.” Glimmer stated. 

“What? Why?” Catra levelled Adora with an exasperated stare.

“Why do you think, dumbass? From what Sparkles and Bow have implied, people here don’t take kindly to the Horde.”

Bow was fiddling with Catra’s belt. She didn’t look happy about it but allowed him to take it off and stow it in his pants pocket. 

“Exactly,” said Glimmer. “If the villagers see a couple of Horde soldiers, they’ll freak out. So we gotta fix… all this.” she waved her hand at Adora and Catra. Adora took off her jacket and Glimmer threw it into the bushes, then fastened her own cape around Adora like a type of shawl. Catra snickered.

“... I feel ridiculous.”

“That’s because you need something to tie it all together!” Bow said cheerfully, picking a flower and placing it behind Adora’s ear. This time Catra actually dissolved into giggles at her.

“I don’t like it!” Adora looked down at herself awkwardly. Glimmer put her hands on her hips. 

“The point is you don’t look like a Horde soldier anymore. That’s the best we could do for Catra, though. She would’ve gotten the cape if you didn’t have the Horde’s symbol printed on your back.” Catra sobered up at that. “Just try and keep a low profile. We’ll be in and out.” Glimmer finished, heading into the village.

Adora and Catra eyed the scene around them as the group trekked through the town.

“What is this?” Adora murmured in wonder.

“It’s a festival. You know, like a big party.” Adora and Catra came to a stop with Bow. They looked at each other blankly. Bow blinked.

“You don’t have parties in the Fright Zone?” He looked horrified for them. 

“Oh, right, parties!” Adora shot him awkward finger guns. Catra slapped herself in the face with a groan. “I mean, yeah, pfft, of course we , uh-”

“We don’t know what that is.” Catra stated plainly. Bow made a sound of distress.

“Did you even hear what I just said?” Glimmer snapped at them. “In and out, Bow!”

“They have never been to a party before, Glimmer! This is serious!” Bow grabbed Adora and Catra’s hands and took off with them towards a stand. The two girls watched him exchange something for what smelled like food, before breaking it apart and handing them both half. Adora took a bite first while Catra eyed it distrustfully. At Adora’s look of awe at the food, however, Catra took a small bite, her own eyes widening at how good it was.

Next they found a table to sit at and watch some dancers, while Adora and Catra stuffed their faces with different types of food until it was all gone. They left their table to explore some more after eating when Adora caught sight of some children trying to hit a stuffed… thing, with sticks. One of the kids handed a stick to her and she felt herself fill with determination. She moved to stand in front of what the kids were failing to hit, her hair blowing in the wind as she showed off some moves for them. Catra gave a small smile at her friend's antics.

After Adora thoroughly destroyed the poor thing, the kids all cheered and rushed forward to dig through what had come out of it.

After that she and Catra ended up hanging out behind a tree, watching and listening to a villager tell the kids a story. Adora’s face was open in wonder, and though Catra pretended not to be interested her ears were focused on the storyteller. Neither of them noticed Glimmer’s approach until she was leaning against the same branch as them. She sighed.

A little while later, Bow, Catra and Adora were resting against a house eating what Bow called ‘cotton candy’. 

“So, no parties ever?” he questioned. “What do you do on your birthdays?” Adora inspected a speck of her snack and barely acknowledged him. “Huh?”

“No birthdays?! How is your life this sad?!” he looked scandalized. Adora turned around, then dropped her cotton candy and gasped.

“What. Is. That?” Catra and Bow followed her line of sight. Catra instantly didn’t trust the creature she saw, but Adora had stars in her eyes as she watched it shake its mane.

“That would be a horse,” Bow said, sounding not that impressed by it. Adora didn’t notice.

“It’s majestic,” she whispered. Catra looked at her friend and found she couldn’t tear her eyes away from Adora’s fascinated expression. Bow smiled and made to gently push her towards the horse.

“You wanna go meet it?” he said with a bright grin.

“What? No!” Adora whined self-consciously as she was led over. Catra snapped out of staring at her friend, feeling oddly flustered. 

“Come on, it’s ok. See, he likes you.” Bow urged, placing Adora’s hand on the horse’s snout. Adora gasped.

“This is the best day of my life,” she turned to Catra with excitement. “Catra! Come meet him! This is so cool!” Catra flicked her tail hesitantly before untensing her shoulders and joining Adora. She still didn’t touch the creature, though. 

Meanwhile, Bow had moved back to join Glimmer a few meters away. 

“Bow…” she started.

“Come on, I know you like them too,” he teased.

Then they all heard the telltale rumbling of something going wrong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, I hope you liked the second chapter!! I think I'm gonna replace Catra mostly with Lonnie from here on out and see where that takes the story. The fights won't all be as emotionally charged as the originals, obviously, but I'm okay with that. I'll have the next chapter up soon!

**Author's Note:**

> Next chapter- The group goes to Thaymore.


End file.
